First Look: Samsung Intercept (Virgin Mobile)

-I'm Jessica Dolcourt with CNET.com taking a look at the Samsung Intercept for Virgin Mobile USA.
This an entry-level Android phone, and although we've already seen this model for Sprint, it's Virgin Mobile's first Android phone ever.
The Intercept has rounded corners and is mostly black with some shiny silver accents.
It's a nice-enough-looking phone, but it's also a little bit bulky and rather heavy, mostly because it has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
The phone
features a 3.2-inch touchscreen, a 4 touch-sensitive buttons to pull up the menu, the home screen, the back button, and the search bar.
We usually prefer touchscreens to be 3.5 inches or greater, and you can see that the icons and menus are a bit small to tap.
Beneath the screen are the talk and end buttons, and a 4-way navigation toggle with a Select button that doubles as an optical trackpad.
We really do like trackpads, but this one was almost too small to really be able to use.
On one side, there's a camera button and a 3.5 mm headset jack.
On the other, there's the volume rocker and a micro SD card slot that can handle up to 32 gigabytes of memory.
This test phone came with 2 gigabytes already installed.
On the top is the micro USB charging port, and on the back, you'll find the 3.2 megapixel camera.
There's a small self-portrait mirror here, but a flash would've been nice, too.
What is nice is the soft touch finish on the back cover, which makes the phone comfortable to hold.
Now, there is this full QWERTY keyboard that we mentioned, which is roomy and pretty easy to use.
We like the shortcut for the menu button and the placement of the function key.
Inside, you'll find all the usual Android features that are tightly integrated with the platform.
There's navigation, maps, places, Gmail, and YouTube.
Facebook and ThinkFree Office also come preloaded, and you get more apps from the Android Market place as usual.
Virgin has also preloaded a few apps like the Virgin Mobile Live Internet Streaming Station.
There are also shortcuts to your account and to an online Virgin Mobile store.
The Intercept costs $249.99 with
Virgin Mobile USA, but there is no contract required.
It's not the most advanced Android phone we've ever seen, but it's a solid choice and one of the top high-end phones for Virgin Mobile.
I'm Jessica Dolcourt looking at the Samsung Intercept for Virgin Mobile USA.